8. The use of the strong preterits (_see_ the chapter on the tenses of verbs), where in the present English the weak form is found; _wex_, _wop_, _dalf_, for _waxed_, _wept_, _delved_. 9. The omission not only of the gerundial termination _-enne_, but also of the infinitive sign _-en_ after _to_; _to honte_, _to speke_;--in contradistinction to Semi-Saxon. 10. The substitution of _-en_ for _-eth_ or _-edh_ in the first and second persons plural of verbs; _we wollen_, we will: _heo schullen_, they should;--_ditto_. 11. The comparative absence of the articles _se_ and _seo_;--_ditto_. {122} 12. The substitution of _ben_ and _beeth_, for _synd_ and _syndon_=_we_, _ye_, _they are_;--in contradistinction to Semi-Saxon. s. 179. The degree to which the Anglo-Saxon was actually influenced by the Anglo-Norman has been noticed. The degree wherein the two languages came in contact is, plainly, another consideration. The first is the question, How far one of two languages influenced the other? The second asks, How far one of two languages had the opportunity of influencing the other? Concerning the extent to which the Anglo-Norman was used, I retail the following statements and quotations. 1. "Letters even of a private nature were written in Latin till the beginning of the reign of Edward I., soon after 1270, when a sudden change brought in the use of French."--_Mr. Hallam, communicated by Mr. Stevenson_ (_Literature of Europe, I. 52, and note_). 2. Conversation between the Members of the Universities was ordered to be carried on either in Latin or French:--"_Si qua inter se proferant, colloquio Latino vel saltem Gallico perfruantur._"--_Statutes of Oriel College, Oxford.--Hallam, ibid._ from Warton. 3. "The Minutes of the Corporation of London, recorded in the Town Clerk's Office, were in French, as well as the Proceedings in Parliament, and in the Courts of Justice."--_Ibid._ 4. "In Grammar Schools, boys were made to construe their Latin into French,"--_Ibid._ "_Pueri in scholis, contra morem caeterarum nationum, et Normannorum adventu, derelicto proprio vulgari, construere Gallice compelluntur. Item quod filii nobilium ab ipsis cunabulorum crepundiis ad Gallicum idioma informantur. Quibus profecto rurales homines assimulari volentes, ut per hoc spectabiliores videantur, Francigenari satagunt omni nisu._"--_Higden_ (_Ed. Gale_, p. 210). That there was French in England before the battle of Hastings appears on the authority of Camden:-- "Herein is a notable argument of our ancestors' steadfastness in esteeming and retaining their own tongue. For, as _before the Conquest_, they misliked nothing more in King Edward the Confessor, than that he was Frenchified, and accounted the desire of a foreign language then to be a foretoken of the bringing in of foreign powers, which indeed happened."--_Remains_, p. 30.